Rehearsal, Record, Review
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day one hundred and fifty-two: ABCs #18 New Directions works to reproduce a performance by Will's Glee Club.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a second cycle, and then a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh cycle. Now here's cycle 8!_

_Walking through a bookstore back in december, I saw the series of books by Sue Grafton that go "A is for...," "B is for...," etc, and I got the idea for this set. It will spread over the end of cycle 6, and carry through cycles 7 and 8, to be posted on alternating days. [And by the time we reach the end, Glee will be a week away!!] What I did is I found three words for each letter that would have some significance to Glee, and I built a plot around it. You with me? Okay, here we go..._  
_**18 of 26:** R is for..._

* * *

**"Rehearsal, Record, Review"  
Will, Emma, New Directions, Will/Emma**

When Will arrived to Glee practice that afternoon, the whole group was huddled around Artie, staring at the laptop in his lap. "Hey, guys, what are you watching?" At once, the eleven on their feet jumped back, and Artie closed the laptop.

"Hey, Mr. Schuester," Artie spoke, nodding his head. Will smirked, seeing the hand-in-the-cookie-jar look on their faces. He paced about like the sheriff in their town of Glee.

"What's going on here?" No one spoke, only looking around. A few of them looked ready to smirk, laugh, but they tried and held it in. "Not going to tell me?" He approached. "Show me?" Rachel finally just took the initiative, stepping up before the group.

"Well, we got curious," she nodded.

"Curious," Will repeated, nodding back.

"Right," Rachel went on nodding. "We wanted to see for ourselves, how you were… back in the day." Will smirked, understanding why they were so evasive. He held out his hand and Artie handed him the laptop, only half meeting his eyes. Will put the laptop on the piano and opened it. Seeing what performance they were watching, he smirked.

"That was always one of my favorites," he indicated the screen. The others had relaxed, and they stepped up closer to look again.

"I can see why," Rachel nodded.

"Yeah," Finn nodded in agreement, as did the others. Will looked at them, and he had an idea.

"What would you say about… reproducing it? It could be a good exercise for all of you. Who's in?" One by one all twelve hands went up. "Good, alright." The hands all went down except Rachel's. "Yes?"

"There's only twelve of us," she pointed out, indicating the more numerous club on the screen. "We'll need to adjust choreography."

"Yes, that'll be our starting point," he looked to the others. "Let's get to work."

They spent a good time observing the video, wanting to know it enough to reproduce it. Once they'd spotted their teacher among the group through, it was hard not to keep an eye on him and grin.

"Once curly, always curly," Kurt commented with a smirk to Mr. Schuester, which got a chuckle out of a few of the others, Will included.

"Look at Schue go," Mike nodded, turning chuckles into cheers. He and Brittany, eventually joined by Santana and Matt as well, had started imitating the choreography in the back of the pack. Will smiled moving to join them, giving pointers as they went. In the end, it was all of them who had joined in, making the adjustments needed in order to compensate for their reduced numbers.

After a while, Tina offered herself to go seek out the lyrics and sheet music, and Artie went with her. Mercedes and Kurt got to discussing costumes, watching the video for inspiration. The way they saw it, the best way to reproduce the performance, with a New Directions twist, was to take the original costumes and give them a twist as well. Most of the others got along, working on the new/old choreography… most but not all.

As Will stood by the piano, watching them, Rachel came up to him. "Don't you want to practice with them?" he indicated the group.

"It's alright. I think I got it," she shrugged. "Mr. Schuester, I was thinking… You always sit on your own, watching us, I… I think there's someone else who might want to watch with you, a redhead, good with giving guidance to kids, among others," she smiled, and Will did too. "She should be in her office now, if you'd like to…"

"She is," Will nodded in confirmation. He stood, looking to Rachel. "Go and help the others. I'll be right back." She nodded and moved to help, as suggested, while Will stepped out of the room for a few minutes.

A few days later, all the elements were in place. Lyrics were learned, costumes were on, and an audience of two sat in the auditorium to watch the results. Emma knew the performance, the original, from having seen the video herself, and she was very curious to see what the kids would do with it. It started with the guys, before Artie moved forth.

_[GUYS] "Mm ba ba de / Um bum ba de / Um bu bu bum da de"_

_[A] "Pressure pushing down on me / Pressing down on you no man ask for / Under pressure - that burns a building down / Splits a family in two / Puts people on streets"_

The girls remained by their side as they went on, and Artie moved around them as Finn took his place. The others surrounded him.

_[GIRLS] "Um ba ba be / Um ba ba be / De day da / Ee day da - that's o.k."_

_[F] "That's the terror of knowing / What this world is about / Watching some good friends / Screaming" [ALL] "'Let me out'" / [F] "Pray tomorrow - gets me higher / Pressure on people - people on streets"_

Kurt stepped forward as Finn stepped back, though after a moment he rejoined them, the better for them to all go as one.

_[GUYS] "Day day de mm hm / Da da da ba ba / O.k."_

_[K] "Chippin' around - kick my brains around the floor / These are the days it never rains but it pours"_

_[ALL] "Ee do ba be / Ee da ba ba ba / Um bo bo / Be lap / People on streets - ee da de da de / People on streets - ee da de da de da de da"_

It was Puck who took up the lead next, much as Finn had done before. He stayed in front though, as first Artie, then Kurt, then the other guys and finally the girls moved forward, so they were all in front.

_[P] "It's the terror of knowing / What this world is about / Watching some good friends / Screaming" [ALL] "'Let me out'" / [P] "Pray tomorrow - gets me higher high high / Pressure on people - people on streets"_

_[A] "Turned away from it all like a blind man / Sat on a fence but it don't work / Keep coming up with love / but it's so slashed and torn" / [K] "Why - why - why ?" / [GUYS] "Love love" [ALL] "love love love"_

Will and Emma were smiling, watching them, and Will felt a mixture of pride and nostalgia, looking at them. He knew the Acafellas hadn't panned out in the end, but he really did miss this still.

Going forward with their performance, they continued moving along as leads increased and increased more still.

_[F] "Insanity laughs under pressure we're cracking" / [F, P] "Can't we give ourselves one more chance" / [F, P, A, K] "Why can't we give love that one more chance" / [GUYS] "Why can't we give love give love give love give love / give love give love give love give love give love"_

Finally they were all together again, one by the other, until the girls moved and the guys went on to the end of their song.

_[ALL] "'Cause love's such an old fashioned word / And love dares you to care for / The people on the edge of the night / And love dares you to change our way of / Caring about ourselves / This is our last dance / This is ourselves" / [GUYS] "Under pressure / Under pressure / Pressure"_

Will and Emma got on their feet, applauding the group. Will nodded, knowing how they had done it as much for him as for themselves. It was something they all shared now.

THE END


End file.
